Currently, in Japan and Korea, family characteristics and values are undergoing diversification. This is thought to affect students' attitudes toward family and home life. Accordingly, it is necessary to incorporate this situation into the teaching of home economics, in which students study the family and home life.

  Therefore, in this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey of high school students in Japan and Korea to clarify the structure of learning about gender equality in home economics education and how gender roles are influenced.

  It was discovered that, the greater the effect of learning about gender equality in home economics education, the more the students are faithful to school life, the more they emphasize the stability of life and work in the future, and the more they highlight the relationship between married couples in both countries. Furthermore, it became apparent that this consciousness has an influence on Japanese male students in that they take a positive stance about women's social participation.

  The purpose of this study was to consider what factors lead to the desire to marry. I conducted an anonymous questionnaire survey on the internet over the whole area of Fukui and Osaka Prefectures in 2014. Then, I conducted hierarchical multiple regression analysis with the desire to marry as a dependent variable, based on personal attributes, the experience of contact with children, cognition of families' or friends' married life and childrearing, and the number of relationships with members of the opposite sex as independent variables. As a result, I found that the desire to marry seemed to be affected not only by personal attributes, but also various experiences in the course of people's lives. It became clear that there was a strong connection between cognition of friends' married lives, the number of friends and relationships with members of the opposite sex, and the traditional view of marriage.

  The use of leftover bath water for household laundry is a practice unique to Japan. This study investigated the annual reduction in the environmental load that household laundry achieved using leftover bath water and ultra-concentrated liquid detergents, based on calculated GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and life cycle cost assessments from actual measurements of model household laundry conditions, while taking into account differences in washing machines and detergents. Compared to conventional laundry practices (pulsator-type washing machine, laundry volume of 2.5 kg/wash, powder detergent), the results showed it was possible to reduce GHG emissions by 22％ by switching to a drum-type washing machine and by 24％ by using leftover bath water. The use of high-temperature leftover bath water was also found to give similar detergency between winter and spring-fall. The parameters of the laundry practice generating the least GHG emission volumes were the use of leftover bath water, drum-type washing machine, ultra-concentrated liquid detergent, and bulk washing cycles. Compared to conventional laundry practice, this resulted in a 59％ reduction in GHG emissions from the washing process and a 59％ reduction in cost. Due to sanitary and safety considerations, the volume of detergent cannot be reduced when using leftover bath water. However, the volume of water used can be halved. The study results confirm that this laundry method can significantly reduce GHG emissions and cost while maintaining detergency levels.

  This study clarifies the formation of awareness of gender equality among male preparatory school students through home economics classes. Retrospective descriptions of student learning were analyzed using M-GTA. The results showed that students at male preparatory schools had little interest in their private lives, and demonstrated a gender-biased orientation to life. However, through the experience of welfare facilities and exchange classes with students at a women's high school, they experienced a culture shock by learning about the reality of welfare and women's viewpoints which shook their male-oriented view of life and which led to many conflicts. By the end of the academic year, they had begun to search for a lifestyle unconstrained by gender, one that tackled the challenge of life planning from the standpoint of women based on the above study.

  The purpose of the present study was to estimate the minimal food cost based on the dietary reference intake for Japanese people. For this purpose, we calculated the minimal food cost using mathematical optimization. To calculate a food plan for each age-gender group, 68 mathematical optimization models for each of the food plan groups were employed. For the calculation of mathematical optimization models, we used data based on the dietary reference intake for Japanese people and a retail price survey by the Statistics Bureau of the Japanese Government. We established four categories (25％, 50％, 75％ and 85％ for standard food intake). From these restrictions, we calculated the minimal food cost using mathematical optimization. The normal food cost per month for adult males (18-29 years) was 41,865 Yen, and for adult females (18-29 years) was 26,037 Yen. Based on these results, we were able to estimate the minimal food cost for families in order to prevent lifestyle related diseases. In this study we used computed ingredients instead of food to calculate optimal combinations, so it has not been verified whether these combinations can be realized in practice. In order to put the results of this study into practice, it is necessary to verify the results of the calculation and the connection between cooking and menu planning.